Friday, February 11, 2011

2014 FIFA World Cup seeding for UEFA teams (11 February 2010)

- UEFA will again have 13 spots- UEFA will again use the system with 9 groups- FIFA will use the July 2011 FIFA ranking to seed the teams

The July 2011 FIFA ranking will include matches played between July 2007 and July 2011. We already 50% of the final ranking. Things can and will change before July 2011 as there are many matches to be played involving European teams: EURO 2012 qualifiers and plenty of friendlies.

Odds are none of these ridiculous groups will come out, it's unlikely that any such polarised groups will come out, but the bottom line is it could happen. I could just imagine Greece getting one, they've had extremely favourable draws the last 3 times, it's the reason why they are still clinging to a top seed. But those groups still could come out. There will certainly be some big disparity though. I remember I did a mock draw for one of these once, and drew out the hardest imo teams from pots 2, 3 and 4, and a strong 5th seed into one group with Germany. I'm sure the Germans being the Germans would have just swept them all aside anyway, but sucks for the other teams. Lucky I wasn't doing the real draw.

If we think further, the things could be more ridicoulous: Luxemborg will overtake Wales, strong Armenia or even Poland would go one pot down, and e.t.c. actually that funny draws were possible in previous draws, and only Croatia's and Greece's group's were good example's, i'm pretty sure draws would be normal.

Group of Death : Spain, Russia, Sweden, Romania, Finland, Iceland.Joke Group : Greece, Slovenia, Lithuania, Albania, Azerbaijan, San Marino.6th seed (ICE) in brutal group is stronger than 3rd (LTU) in Joke one, however FIFA will alow that, but i think in 2018 they will change their ranking system.Also a group with popular, but not always strong teams : Spain, France, Scotland, Belgium, Finland, Iceland.